3 ms·

Blog post for people who prefer reading: https://hackaday.com/2026/04/11/implementing-pcie-over-fiber-using-sfp-modules/ https://hackaday.com/2026/04/11/impleme

Blog post for people who prefer reading: https://hackaday.com/2026/04/11/implementing-pcie-over-fiber-using-sfp-modules/ https://hackaday.com/2026/04/11/implementing-pcie-over-fiber... While at a higher level, thunderbolt and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpEther https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpEther can both of course work over fiber too! (Q|O)SFP are basically just raw high speed serial interfaces to whatever - you see this a lot in FPGAs, you can use the QSFP interfaces for anything high speed - PCIe, SATA, HDMI…

dcrazy 6mo ago
> Although we can already buy commercial transceiver solutions that allow us to use PCIe devices like GPUs outside of a PC, these use an encapsulating protocol like Thunderbolt rather than straight PCIe. > [snip] > As explained in the intro, this doesn’t come without a host of compatibility issues, least of all PCIe device detection, side-channel clocking and for PCIe Gen 3 its equalization training feature that falls flat if you try to send it over an SFP link. So, uh… what’s the benefit? How much overhead does Thunderbolt really introduce, given it solves these other issues?
- jmyeet 6mo ago
  The benefits are twofold: physical colocation and bandwidth. Thunderbolt 5 offers 80Gbps of bidirectional bandwidth. PCIe 5.0 16x offers 1024Gbps of bidirectional bandwidth. This matters. TB5 cables can only get so long whereas fiber can go much farther more easily. This means that in a data center type environment, you could virtualize your GPUs and attach them as necessary, putting them in a separate bank (probably on the same rack).
  - mikepurvis 6mo ago
    "same rack" should still be fine for 1m passive TB5 cable though, right?
  - consp 6mo ago
    > 1024Gbps Good luck getting a 1Tbit tranceiver. Anydirectional. Also it's 512Gbitish per direction.
    - jmyeet 6mo ago
      Bidirectional is a lot like biweekly. Biweekly depending on context means twice a week or once every two weeks and bidirectional can both mean per direction and total of both directions. But yes I meant 512Gbps each way, to be clear.
      - fc417fc802 6mo ago
        I'm only a single datapoint but I've never encountered that usage. My understanding of a bidirectional link is that it meets the same spec in both directions simultaneously. It's important precisely because many links aren't bidirectional, sharing a single physical link between two logical links.
        dcrazy 6mo ago
        The more precise terms are full-duplex and half-duplex.
    - za_creature 6mo ago
      The video is about a 2x1 link, which the author hopes to eventually scale up to 3x4 using 40 gig transceivers. I'd say thunderbolt is probably safe in the near future.
    - throwaway270925 6mo ago
      Easy, fs.com has 1.6Tbps OSFP for about 570€ - though only up to 1m lenght apparently.
      - jmyeet 6mo ago
        I was looking into the highest bandwidth optical transceivers. 400Gbps were easy enough to find so thanks for posting this. I honestly didn't know there were 1.6Tbps transceivers like this. One note: I believe the SMF max fiber length is 2km not 1m [1]. The data sheet [2] also says: > - 2000m max on single mode fiber [1]: https://www.vitextech.com/products/1-6t-osfp-2fr4 https://www.vitextech.com/products/1-6t-osfp-2fr4 [2]: https://resource.fs.com/mall/resource/cn_osfp-2fr4-16t-data-sheet-20251215182215.pdf https://resource.fs.com/mall/resource/cn_osfp-2fr4-16t-data-...
  - dcrazy 6mo ago
    Active optical (yes!) Thunderbolt cables can be much longer. After all, optical fiber was the original medium for Thunderbolt, back when it was still called Light Peak. I couldn’t find any optical TB5 cables, but here’s a 4.5m TB4 one: https://www.owc.com/blog/the-new-superlong-40gb-s-owc-active-optical-cable-delivers-supreme-flexibility-to-your-workspace https://www.owc.com/blog/the-new-superlong-40gb-s-owc-active... And if TB3 is enough, Corning makes them in lengths up to 50m: https://www.corning.com/microsites/coc/oem/documents/ocbc/OEM-062-A4-AEN.pdf https://www.corning.com/microsites/coc/oem/documents/ocbc/OE... As for bandwidth, the medium transition seems to actually limit the author’s capabilities by losing some of the more advanced link-training features that are necessary for the highest-bandwidth PCIe 3 connections, never mind PCIe 5.
    - zamadatix 6mo ago
      Hundreds of meters is considered short range in the world of *SFP. If you just plan on putting the GPUs in the same rack then I'm not sure it really matters, but you can really put anything anywhere in your DC and have things zoned with *SFP. I don't think there is any reason TB couldn't do the same, beyond it would be even more niche to want non-modular/patchable cables+transceivers at those lengths (especially since fiber is often bundled dozens/hundreds of strands over a single trunk cable between racks).
    - dmitrygr 6mo ago
      For the curious, that 50m cable is $500 MSRP. https://1sourcevideo.com/shop/corning-50-meter-thunderbolt-3-optical-cable.html https://1sourcevideo.com/shop/corning-50-meter-thunderbolt-3...
    - jauntywundrkind 6mo ago
      Thunderbolt is kind of cursed. To insure maximum compatibility it mandates a legacy usb2 connection via separate connections. TB3/USB4/TB4 are packetized, but afaik there's no defined way to packetized usb2, it's expected there be a whole separate set of wires for it. And because of timings, my admittedly so-aonunderstanding that you can only get about 7m before you absolutely have to have a hub/repeater (unless you can speed up the speed of light considerably). This limit to how long a single length can be can't really be cheated without violating usb specs. It's awesome if folks have packetized USB2. A pity it's not in the flipping spec though!! That Corning made it 50m is wild. You need a virtual hub at the start that can pretend to be hubs 1-5 (so it's close enough to time well). Then a hub on the other side of the cable at (skinny) tree depth 6. Allowing for 4 devices under it (the number of ports on a usb2 hub in the spec. But you could work around by faking being not a skinny tree but a fat tree, maybe?).
- tnt246 6mo ago
  I go over it in the video but yes, active thunderbolt is probably a very good choice for a lot of people. I went into another direction for some reasons that are not applicable to everyone: - Learning : I want to learn about the lower level of PCIe and it's a good project. - Re-use of cabling : I have a bunch of single mode fiber bundle going around already. You can't find thunderbolt that just have a LC connector ... - Isolation : Active thunderbolt cable still often have copper for some low speed signals, they don't offer true galvanic isolation - Avoid dealing with thunderbolt. I want a custom chassis/pcb at one end and chips to convert from TB back to PCIe are not readily available to make custom stuff with ... (not as an individual anyway). So yeah, if you want a ready to use solution, TB cable is absolutely a good choice, here I'm having some fun, learning in the process and hopefully sharing some of the knowledge.
  - dcrazy 6mo ago
    Hey, I love a great self-educational deep dive. Don’t have time to watch the video until after the workday, but it sounds enlightening! (I swear that was not intentional.)

dcrazy 6mo ago

> Although we can already buy commercial transceiver solutions that allow us to use PCIe devices like GPUs outside of a PC, these use an encapsulating protocol like Thunderbolt rather than straight PCIe. > [snip] > As explained in the intro, this doesn’t come without a host of compatibility issues, least of all PCIe device detection, side-channel clocking and for PCIe Gen 3 its equalization training feature that falls flat if you try to send it over an SFP link. So, uh… what’s the benefit? How much overhead does Thunderbolt really introduce, given it solves these other issues?

jmyeet 6mo ago
The benefits are twofold: physical colocation and bandwidth. Thunderbolt 5 offers 80Gbps of bidirectional bandwidth. PCIe 5.0 16x offers 1024Gbps of bidirectional bandwidth. This matters. TB5 cables can only get so long whereas fiber can go much farther more easily. This means that in a data center type environment, you could virtualize your GPUs and attach them as necessary, putting them in a separate bank (probably on the same rack).
- mikepurvis 6mo ago
  "same rack" should still be fine for 1m passive TB5 cable though, right?
- consp 6mo ago
  > 1024Gbps Good luck getting a 1Tbit tranceiver. Anydirectional. Also it's 512Gbitish per direction.
  - jmyeet 6mo ago
    Bidirectional is a lot like biweekly. Biweekly depending on context means twice a week or once every two weeks and bidirectional can both mean per direction and total of both directions. But yes I meant 512Gbps each way, to be clear.
    - fc417fc802 6mo ago
      I'm only a single datapoint but I've never encountered that usage. My understanding of a bidirectional link is that it meets the same spec in both directions simultaneously. It's important precisely because many links aren't bidirectional, sharing a single physical link between two logical links.
      - dcrazy 6mo ago
        The more precise terms are full-duplex and half-duplex.
  - za_creature 6mo ago
    The video is about a 2x1 link, which the author hopes to eventually scale up to 3x4 using 40 gig transceivers. I'd say thunderbolt is probably safe in the near future.
  - throwaway270925 6mo ago
    Easy, fs.com has 1.6Tbps OSFP for about 570€ - though only up to 1m lenght apparently.
    - jmyeet 6mo ago
      I was looking into the highest bandwidth optical transceivers. 400Gbps were easy enough to find so thanks for posting this. I honestly didn't know there were 1.6Tbps transceivers like this. One note: I believe the SMF max fiber length is 2km not 1m [1]. The data sheet [2] also says: > - 2000m max on single mode fiber [1]: https://www.vitextech.com/products/1-6t-osfp-2fr4 https://www.vitextech.com/products/1-6t-osfp-2fr4 [2]: https://resource.fs.com/mall/resource/cn_osfp-2fr4-16t-data-sheet-20251215182215.pdf https://resource.fs.com/mall/resource/cn_osfp-2fr4-16t-data-...
- dcrazy 6mo ago
  Active optical (yes!) Thunderbolt cables can be much longer. After all, optical fiber was the original medium for Thunderbolt, back when it was still called Light Peak. I couldn’t find any optical TB5 cables, but here’s a 4.5m TB4 one: https://www.owc.com/blog/the-new-superlong-40gb-s-owc-active-optical-cable-delivers-supreme-flexibility-to-your-workspace https://www.owc.com/blog/the-new-superlong-40gb-s-owc-active... And if TB3 is enough, Corning makes them in lengths up to 50m: https://www.corning.com/microsites/coc/oem/documents/ocbc/OEM-062-A4-AEN.pdf https://www.corning.com/microsites/coc/oem/documents/ocbc/OE... As for bandwidth, the medium transition seems to actually limit the author’s capabilities by losing some of the more advanced link-training features that are necessary for the highest-bandwidth PCIe 3 connections, never mind PCIe 5.
  - zamadatix 6mo ago
    Hundreds of meters is considered short range in the world of *SFP. If you just plan on putting the GPUs in the same rack then I'm not sure it really matters, but you can really put anything anywhere in your DC and have things zoned with *SFP. I don't think there is any reason TB couldn't do the same, beyond it would be even more niche to want non-modular/patchable cables+transceivers at those lengths (especially since fiber is often bundled dozens/hundreds of strands over a single trunk cable between racks).
  - dmitrygr 6mo ago
    For the curious, that 50m cable is $500 MSRP. https://1sourcevideo.com/shop/corning-50-meter-thunderbolt-3-optical-cable.html https://1sourcevideo.com/shop/corning-50-meter-thunderbolt-3...
  - jauntywundrkind 6mo ago
    Thunderbolt is kind of cursed. To insure maximum compatibility it mandates a legacy usb2 connection via separate connections. TB3/USB4/TB4 are packetized, but afaik there's no defined way to packetized usb2, it's expected there be a whole separate set of wires for it. And because of timings, my admittedly so-aonunderstanding that you can only get about 7m before you absolutely have to have a hub/repeater (unless you can speed up the speed of light considerably). This limit to how long a single length can be can't really be cheated without violating usb specs. It's awesome if folks have packetized USB2. A pity it's not in the flipping spec though!! That Corning made it 50m is wild. You need a virtual hub at the start that can pretend to be hubs 1-5 (so it's close enough to time well). Then a hub on the other side of the cable at (skinny) tree depth 6. Allowing for 4 devices under it (the number of ports on a usb2 hub in the spec. But you could work around by faking being not a skinny tree but a fat tree, maybe?).
tnt246 6mo ago
I go over it in the video but yes, active thunderbolt is probably a very good choice for a lot of people. I went into another direction for some reasons that are not applicable to everyone: - Learning : I want to learn about the lower level of PCIe and it's a good project. - Re-use of cabling : I have a bunch of single mode fiber bundle going around already. You can't find thunderbolt that just have a LC connector ... - Isolation : Active thunderbolt cable still often have copper for some low speed signals, they don't offer true galvanic isolation - Avoid dealing with thunderbolt. I want a custom chassis/pcb at one end and chips to convert from TB back to PCIe are not readily available to make custom stuff with ... (not as an individual anyway). So yeah, if you want a ready to use solution, TB cable is absolutely a good choice, here I'm having some fun, learning in the process and hopefully sharing some of the knowledge.
- dcrazy 6mo ago
  Hey, I love a great self-educational deep dive. Don’t have time to watch the video until after the workday, but it sounds enlightening! (I swear that was not intentional.)